Maharashtra: 12-year-old student erases caste from school records, wins praise

A 12-year-old student from Marathwada region has become talk of his village for ‘erasing’ the mention of his caste from the school attendance record.

Rohan Bhosle, a seventh standard student of the Zilla Parishad (ZP) school at Pargaon village in Ashti tehsil of Beed district, deleted the mention of his caste from the school attendance sheet recently, which won praise from classmates and teachers.

Prateeksha Shirole, Rohan’s classmate, said he took the muster sheet, pulled out a pen and rubbed the blue ink on the column which had mention of his caste.

Somnath Walke, Rohan’s teacher said, “I was shocked and wondered as to why Rohan did that.”

“When I asked him why he erased his caste, he said, ‘Sir, you regularly teach us in classroom about equality.  Everybody has only one caste: humanity. Nobody should ask the other as to what his caste is’,” the teacher said.

Rohan’s parents are farmers. His father Suresh and mother Manda said, they were surprised that Rohan had taken such a “revolutionary” step.